Grand opening for Rye’s downtown

Mayor John A. McNally and Councilwoman Annie Gillam, D-1st, will cut the ribbon at the grand opening celebration of Rye’s Craft Beer and Whiskey Bar downtown at 7:45 p.m. Saturday.

Rye’s, located above Imbibe Martini Bar at 124 W. Federal St., features a selection of 40 whiskeys, 100 domestic craft beers — including 14 beers on tap — and a boilermaker menu for those looking to combine the two.

Rye’s is the third project for owners Jeffrey A. Kurz and Brad Schwartz, whose other ventures include Imbibe Martini Bar and the renovation to the building now housing O’Donold’s.

Bank upgrades mobile-banking app

MINERVA

Consumers National Bank on Thursday unveiled its new Check Connect service, an upgrade to its mobile-banking app that allows customers to deposit checks using the cameras on their smartphones and tablets.

The online banking app, available for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and Kindle, can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Vt. requires labeling of GMO foods

MONTPELIER, Vt.

As hundreds cheered, Gov. Peter Shumlin signed a law Thursday that puts Vermont on the path to be the first state to require labeling of foods made with genetically modified organisms and promptly announced an online fundraiser to battle expected legal challenges from the food industry.

The Vermont law takes effect in mid-2016, but opponents said shortly after the bill-signing that they would file a lawsuit. The Grocery Manufacturers’ Association said government has no compelling interest in warning consumers about GMO foods. Another obstacle to the state law looms in Congress as Republicans work on a bill that would forbid states from passing and enforcing laws requiring GMO labeling.

Critics of GMO foods consider them environmentally suspect and a possible health threat. But many in the food industry say the food is safe, the technology boosts food production and its use is less environmentally harmful than traditional farming methods.

Applications for jobless aid decrease

WASHINGTON

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell 26,000 last week to 319,000, the latest sign that the job market is slowly improving.

The drop follows two weeks of increases that reflected mostly temporary layoffs around the Easter holiday. The holiday can cause an uptick in layoffs of bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other school workers during spring break. Those earlier increases caused the four-week average of applications, a less-volatile number, to rise 4,500 to a seasonally adjusted 324,750.

With the impact of the holiday fading, applications are returning to pre-recession levels. The average fell in early April to 312,000, the fewest since October 2007. The recession officially began in December 2007.